Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World

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Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journaldiscourses as well as the specifics of geographical locality.The book is structured into three sections. The essays, which comprise the first section -‘Racing Histories and Geographies’ – build on the existing body of work on the social construction of‘race’ and the shifting political and discursive contexts there-in, to examine the historical geographiesof ‘race’. This translates into an exploration of the ‘historical imaginaries’ of ‘race’ and racism. To thisend, the areas covered include a survey of Western Whiteness, which connects nineteenth-centuryColonialism to contemporary neo-liberalism; and a discussion of how arguments against ‘politicalcorrectness’ serve to suppress the historical presence of Black people in Britain.Section two – ‘Race, Place and Politics’ – emphasises the importance of locality whenconsidering ethnicity. The resultant essays which comprise this ‘place-based study’ considerthe framing of ‘race’ within policies of immigration and multiculturalism, and issues pertaining tocommunity cohesion, identity politics, cultural values and sense of nation.The final section – ‘Race, Space and Everyday Geographies’ – represents an ethnographicexploration of ‘race’ and ethnicity. The essays here-in focus on the experiential aspects of racialencounters, from the experiences of British Asians at a gay club in Birmingham to the dynamics ofinter-ethnic interaction and youthful expressions of ethnicity.The book closes with an afterword by Peter Jackson, a scholar of social geography, which chartshow the discipline has changed over the last twenty years and which re-interprets the significance ofNew Geographies of Race and Racism accordingly.Also relates to:HistoryMigration, Immigration and the Refugee ExperiencePolitics and GovernmentSocial TheoryBLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKSFrantz FanonPublisher: Pluto PressYear: reprinted 2008Pagination: 256ppISBN: 978-0745328485Price: £12.99Originally published in 1952, this highly influential text is here reprinted with a foreword by ZiauddinSardar in addition to a foreword written by Homi K. Bhabha for the 1986 edition.In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon undertakes a psychoanalytic study of the crushinginadequacy experienced by Black people as a result of sustained and endemic racism. Here, Fanontraces the development of, what he terms, an inferiority complex in Black people, tracing its origins tothe continued affect of colonialism in modern times. He draws attention to the notion of the dividedself which, he claims, is a result of a severed connection with one’s cultural ancestry and homeland.The result, stresses Fanon, is internalisation of the cultural codes of the colonizer by the colonized,namely Black people in contemporary ‘Western’ societies.Fanon’s manifesto urges Black people of the Western world to combat the oppression inflictedon them by White-dominated and White-supremacist societies. The resultant call to arms is designedto inspire a collective struggle and, by extension, political autonomy. Fanon takes as his starting pointhis own journey of self discovery, employing subjectivity as a means of encouraging self-awareness,self-respect, confidence and dignity in his readers.Employing emotive language, Fanon’s delivery is fast-paced and his tone urgent. This is instark contrast to his crucially painstaking analysis of the language and visuality which underpin socialcodes, and consequent hierarchies, of Blackness and Whiteness. The result, claims Fanon, is conflationof Blackness with inferiority, on the one hand, and the marriage of Whiteness with superiority, on theother.Also relates to:Economics and Globalisation58
Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review JournalHistoryMigration, Immigration and the Refugee ExperiencePolitics and GovernmentSocial TheoryA SUITABLE ENEMY: RACISM, MIGRATION AND ISLAMOPHOBIA IN EUROPELiz FeketePublisher:Pluto PressYear:2009Pagination: 259.ppPrice:£17.99,ISBN: 9780745327931This timely book by Liz Fekete, executive director of the Institute of Race Relations, engages in adetailed analysis of the complexities and dehumanising effects of racism across Europe to investigatehow it operates today; through Islamophobia, xeno-racism and the security state.The book’s introduction gives a historical backdrop, discussing the concept of ‘nativism’ andlooking at how racist trends tend to go hand in hand with the urge to create a cohesive nationhoodin the face of globalisation. Here Fekete refers specifically to attitudes towards Roma communitiesin Italy to discuss how discourses of fear around ‘alien’ values in mainstream politics lead to racistmeasures. The rest of the book is split into three sections, each with two chapters.Part 1 addresses the concept of xeno-racism, to discuss how racism has become non-colourcoded in order for increased state security measures and tightened immigration controls. Throughthis racist patterns and profiling are used against asylum seekers, regardless of colour. This sectiondiscusses how these attitudes mirror different forms of racism that have existed throughouthistory, the current form targeting those from the poorest countries. This analysis continues withan engagement with responses to 9/11, specifically their Islamophobic dimension that has taken theform of religious profiling and the policing of ‘suspect’ communities (ie Muslim). The role of the mediais also discussed, as well as rulings on state-imposed dress codes such as the wearing of the hijab.Part 2 explores how Islamophobia has been written into law; in particular Fekete considersfamily reunification and marriage rights in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark to highlight howlegal mechanisms construct Islamic and European values as irreconcilable, and in turn how this createsIslam as homogenous. This discussion extends to the role of western feminist discourse in furtheringracist ideas and the section concludes with a chapter that draws comparisons with McCarthyism indiscussing the current monitoring of Muslims. Fekete draws this discussion back into the formulationof xeno-racism to show how ‘western’ Islam is constructed as a good Islam, whereas the Islam of‘elsewhere’ is seen as a threat.Part 3 focuses on the detention and deportation of asylum seekers to consider the idea ofthe failed asylum seeker, looking at the denial of humanitarian protection and what happens whenthose seeking asylum are sent back. The discussion also outlines the appalling conditions in detentioncentres and the resulting effects on detained children. The next chapter analyses cases when therehave been attempts to fast-track deportations due to a perceived national security risk that is assessedin relation to ‘western’ or ‘democratic’ outlooks rather than in relation to regular public laws.Part 4 begins with focusing on detained children to highlight how rights for asylum childrenare denied. This leads into an outline of the grassroots resistance movements that have emerged toprotect children from this treatment. The final chapter of the book considers the effects of xeno-racistlaws and Islamophobia on Muslim youth – in particular the effect on feelings of self worth.Overall, Fekete’s research is concerned with the developments in popular and institutionalisedracism since 2001, as well as its multiple dimensions; looking at how ‘the nativism of extreme right andanti-immigration movements came to be written into European immigration and security laws’(1).Through this the mainstreaming of extremist racist parties across Europe is analysed and the booklooks at both popular and political discourses as well as resistance movements.59
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Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World

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